“I’m going to show them a man of God has arrived”
I should probably set my stall out immediately as a self-confessed devotee of Nicolas Winding Refn, but I will try to remain as objective as possible. I think Refn will ultimately always be remembered for the pulpy neo noir hit Drive (2011), and otherwise as a purveyor of pretentious, auteurist pieces that border on self-parody. Understandable if a little bit of a shame, because I think Refn has been incredibly consistent in delivering films that are artistically striking.
It may not be his best film, but just before his monster hit Drive, and just after his other notable success, the biopic Bronson (2008) with the fantastic Tom Hardy, came the surrealist 11th century romp Valhalla Rising, possibly the most interesting of Refn’s films.
Mads Mikkelsen plays a mysteriously mute, one eyed Viking warrior who has been captured by pagans and forced to participate in a series of brutal and bloody fights to the death with other unfortunate prisoners. He eventually manages to escape via no less bloody means than that of his spell in captivity, along with a young boy who brought him his meals, and ultimately falls in with a troop of Scottish Christians. The Christians persuade him and the young boy to join them on Crusade, but instead of reaching Jerusalem, a windless and misty debacle of a journey drifts them to the shores of what logically must be North America.
This is a Refn film so it’s no surprise to hear that this is a picture somewhat light on dialogue. It’s a point of heavy criticism in a film like Only God Forgives (2013), however on this film it has an interesting effect. The sparsity of dialogue and Refn’s trademark heavily desaturated cinematography combine and lend themselves to what I think is a very believable setting. Certainly at least an antidote to tacky and melodramatic medieval hack n’ slash epics, the long brooding shots and the dramatic Scottish highlands were the film was shot give the sense that we are in 1000AD.
There is a feeling of the mythological to Mikkelsen’s character, his one eye perhaps an allusion to the fact that he is some sort of wandering Odin-like figure on earth. Equally his character can be interpreted as a nod to the western genre, a sort of Scandinavian medieval Clint Eastwood with anger issues. It must be incredibly hard to effect the film with no dialogue, but Mikkelsen does a decent job of it with a brooding presence that surprisingly contains an emotional pay off in the latter stages of the film when he chooses to save his young companion.
Ultimately the strange beauty of the film and Mikkelsen can’t team up to save it. Refn does not hide his references, from Herzog to Jodorowsky and even to Kubrick with the jumpy score and quick transitions to deep red shots that recall Danny looking at the hallway full of blood in The Shining (1980). But this Viking Heart of Darkness does not live up to those masters. It’s divided into six chapters, but really can be condensed in to three acts, the strongest being the first with the other two failing to punch that weight again. As we enter this perceived Hell with the crusaders on their trippy journey, the big bullseye with ‘Pretentious’ written in bold rears its head, unavoidably.
But it’s beautiful, undeniably. It’s also weird, and it doesn’t really work. I don’t have a problem with this though, I would rather see directors like Refn not be afraid to push boundaries and produce films like Valhalla Rising. You have to have a certain approach to these kind of films, unfortunately that approach is be at peace with the fact that it may not make sense and just try and take it in.
7 – Trippy Viking Apocalypse Now with disembowelment and heads on spikes
Cult Indie Art House B Movies with Subtitles 